Would-Be Suicide Bomber Killed by Unexpected SMS: Muslima Jihad

The would-be suicide bomber was planning to detonate a suicide belt bomb near Red Square, a plan that was foiled when her wireless carrier sent her an SMS while she was still at a safe house, setting off the bomb and killing her. The message reportedly wished her a Happy New Years, according to the report, which sourced the info from security forces in Russia. Cell phones are often used as makeshift detonators by terrorist and insurgent groups.

From Wired article by Ryan Single

Many times over the last few years I have seen plans for cellular phone detonators online and I know for a fact that they were a favorite of the jihadists in Iraq (Iranian trained) making all sorts of IED’s. Now it seems that they are becoming more popular with the AQAP and Chechen Jihadist movements. Of course cheap “burn” phones are a dime a dozen and often the plans for the IED’s involve not using the cell signal itself to detonate (as you always see in the movies) but instead, the timer function tied to the speaker/headset. They do this by simply connecting the speaker power wire to the detonator fuse and voila.

So, this time around they must have done the same thing, but with a working burn phone that was connected to a cell network. This may well just have been a rookie mistake or they did not have the wherewithal to get an old phone that would not connect to any network. I guess though, that they have learned from this and will just break the phone so that it cannot connect and get another “HAPPY NEW YEAR BOOM BOOM” message. Of course, this also could have been a backup method should the bomber decide that to be a shahid was just not in the cards at the last minute huh?

In any case, I would like to point out a fact that not many in the media are picking up on in this story. The interesting bit is that it was

a) A Muslima

b) She was likely Chechen

The Muslima shahid movement has been picking up speed since the attacks on the Moscow Opera House and the school raid in Beslan. The “Black Widows of Jihad” as some of the press actually caught on to but did not elaborate on any further, are a group thought to be comprised of about 36 women (KGB Assessment 2003) who are thought to have been abused by Russian troops and or lost loved ones to the Russian occupation of Chechnya. It is in fact known that both of the operations against the opera house and Beslan school were carried out by the “Black Widows”

Now, this is something that is not covered a lot in the press, the role of the Muslima and Jihad, never mind the shahid operations that they are taking on more often now. This is not just a Chechen thing either, they did start the trend back in 2002, but that has caught on more since then in the regular AQ propaganda. So much so, that the Muslima now have special sections in the jihadist boards online. Often these sections have whole areas on the role of the Muslim woman and their call to jihad. This has been trending for about a year now as I have seen on the boards and in fact, I believe had a large role to play with the stabbing committed by Roshonara Choudry against Stephen Timms of the UK Parliament. Of course one could make a connection to Afia Sadiqi too for that matter. Either way, the role of the Muslim woman taking on the role of Mujahideen is becoming more prevalent… Even in the jihobbyist area where we had Jihad Jane as well.

So, the net effect of all of this is that the profile of terrorism is changing. Not only is it the gender, but also the targeting. The targeting of course is changing and adapting as well to meet the needs of the terrorists to terrorize us all. You are starting to hear the term “Soft Target” more often again since 9/11 and places such as Red Square on New Years, or the Airport arrivals area in Moscow are such soft targets.

The meaning of “Soft Target” is that the targeted area or person has little security around it/them. The airport arrivals area was not perceived as a threat vector until now because AQ’s stated objectives have been to blow up planes and cause spectacular damage. Since 9/11 the world has collectively made airports more secure for those going on the plane. Not so much for those getting off, and meeting relatives. AQ has just adapted to keep attacking us with a thousand cuts. They sow fear in everyday places and cause the governments of the world to become more authoritarian and spend a lot more money to do so. This kinetic attack against the infrastructure also affects the financial state of countries.

They aim to bleed us dry… And they have said as much in Inspire Magazine with “Operation Hemorrhage”

So, I believe you can expect to see more of the Chechen style attacks in Russia, but you likely will be seeing more Muslima shahid operations in the other areas of the world too. As radicalization becomes more prevalent in the female sector, and AQ realizes the potential of such operations we will see a rise in women not only blowing themselves up, but also taking up the AK-47 and fighting on the front lines of Jihad.

We are also going to see an amping up of operations against soft targets like airport arrival areas, train stations/platforms, and anywhere else that people congregate to wait for something or do something as a group. Now, this is not to say that I think we need to have a pervasive security entity with us at every moment, but, instead that we must resign ourselves to this one fact;

The world is a dangerous place. It’s just that much more a dangerous place when you have zealot’s intent on wreaking terror upon the populace to further their own agendas.

We, the people, have to come to grips with that and deal with the government accordingly when they want to infringe on rights in the name of terror prevention.